COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Analytical Report following the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council Commission Opinion on Georgia’s application for membership of the European Union

02.02.2023

This analytical report completes the Commission’s Opinion on Georgia’s application for membership of the EU adopted on 17 June 20221. It assesses the country’s overall capacity to uphold the obligations of membership, i.e. the full body of EU law as set down in the Treaty, secondary legislation, and the EU’s policies (acquis of the European Union).
 

The analytical report is a structural assessment against the criteria set by the European Council in Copenhagen in 1993 and subsequent European Council conclusions. It builds on knowledge and experience gained from the EU’s longstanding close cooperation with Georgia and Georgia’s answers to the detailed questionnaires it received on 11 and 19 April 2022. The Association Agreement, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (AA/DFCTA) covers a substantial part of the EU acquis. It also provides a comprehensive institutional set-up for bilateral dialogue and for monitoring the process of gradual approximation of Georgia’s legislation with the EU acquis. Since 2016, Georgia’s implementation of the EU acquis has been presented in the EU’s annual ‘Association Implementation Reports’. This analytical report does not address the situation of non-government-controlled areas of Georgia.

This analytical report focuses on Georgia’s alignment of its laws with the acquis in the 33 acquis chapters, except for areas that were covered in detail by the Opinion. Following the adoption of the revised enlargement methodology for the EU’s enlargement policy, the EU acquis is further structured around six thematic clusters.

This report takes stock of the situation in June 2022, when the Commission published its
Opinion. The report uses the following assessment scales to describe the state of play: early
stage, some level of preparation, moderately prepared, good level of preparation and well
advanced.